Round 3 17th January 2001

IT’S ALL DOUBLE DUTCH TO ME

GOEDEMORGAN NEDERLAND. De tÿd is uÿh over zeven. Kom op we gaan naar ‘Wÿk aan Zee’ naar het schaaktoernooi.

Rubbing my tired eyes, I began to think I was dreaming as I could see Garry Kasparov’s eyes staring at me from the bottom of the bed. My first reaction was to swear there and then that I’d never sneak into the player’s room at Wijk aan Zee to steal the tea and sandwiches.

But then I realised I had fallen asleep (again!) with the TV on. Roughly translated, I had a rude awakening to the Dutch version of Breakfast Time, with the lead item in the news being today’s events at Wijk aan Zee. My goodness, the Dutch do take chess seriously!

My early-morning alarm call was to be treated to a near five-minute film report that came with shots of the players in action, what was the game of the day, vox popping the spectators and interviews by the likes of Jeoreon van den Berg, the tournament director, and Jan Timman, elder statesman of the Dutch game. It all looked highly efficient and serious stuff, but unfortunately it was all Double Dutch to me – I couldn’t for the life of me understand what they were saying. Perhaps it could have been because they were speaking in Dutch?

I remember once having a dinner conversation in Linares with the editor-in-chief of New In Chess magazine, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, who kindly explained to me the finer points of his mother tongue: “Dutch don’t so much have a language; it’s more of a throat infection!” They say that it’s so guttural, that if you were ever tempted to try and learn the language, then you could start by reciting the list of ingredients from a soup can, with your mouth half-full of syrup.

The story goes that during World War II, the military’s secret test of the Dutch nationality was to have an individual pronounce the name of the town of Scheveningen. Foreigners, and unfortunately chess players, failed when they pronounced it along the lines “Shave-a-nigen”. Can you imagine the outcome of that other Dutch chess institution, “Groningen”?

Thankfully though there’s no need to learn the Dutch language – they’re highly efficient at speaking English. In fact, so much so, they’d even put most of the citizens in the UK to shame.

However I diverge from the main reason for this lengthy TV report on the morning news. Basically, it was to build-up the first of the big showdowns at Wijk – Kasparov vs. Anand! It was truly hyped up by the media. Arriving in to the press centre earlier than usual, I was shocked to discover that most of the Dutch media outlets had also decided to follow this encounter.

One of them, who knew absolutely zippo about chess and had been sent to cover the big story of the day, had the misfortune to ask me in my sleep-deprived state if I knew where the “Russian from Baku and the Indian genius who would be playing for the world championship would be sitting?” With that same devil-may-care-attitude and sarcasm that saw me being thrown out of Raymundo Keene’s shindig in London, I politely pointed him in the general direction of the Grandmaster “B” tournament, stopping only to add: “But I think you're 10-years too early for Radjabov vs. Harikrishna!”

The assembled masses of the press didn't need any directions though come the start of play. It was a case of just follow the crowd. Kasparov and Anand were literally fighting them off in the process of making their way to the board. Believe me, the last time I saw so many photographers and news reporters was in Scotland recently during the pending nuptials of Madonna and Guy Ritchie.

With so many of the media in the playing hall happily snapping away, the organisers were obviously milking the moment for all it was worth (Hey guys! There’s always the round five encounter between Kasparov and Kramnik to look forward to also!), they decided not to bother about the Fide “three-minute flashbulb rule”. After about four minutes of flashing, a rather annoyed Gazza was by now beginning to make desperate signs towards the organisers to have them removed so that he could deal with Anand.

Kasparov,G (2849) - Anand,V (2790) [C78]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0 Bc5 The "pure" Moeller Variation - a close cousin of the Archangel Variation played by Kramnik against Kasparov in their title match. However, the big difference is that with the immediate 5 ..Bc5 Moeller, White cannot transpose to the aforementioned London match: 5 ..b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 a4 Bb7 8 d3 0–0 9 Nc3 Na5 10 axb5 Nxb3 11 cxb3 axb5 12 Rxa8 Bxa8 13 Nxe5 d5 14 Bg5 dxe4 15 dxe4 Qxd1 16 Rxd1 b4 17 Bxf6 bxc3 18 bxc3 gxf6 19 Nd7 Bd6 20 Nxf8 Kxf8 21 f3 h5 22 h4 Ke7 23 Kf2 Bb7 24 c4 Be5 25 Rd2 Bc8 26 Rd5 Be6 27 Ra5 c5 28 Ke3 Bd4+ 29 Kd3 f5 30 b4 fxe4+ 31 Kxe4 Bf2 32 bxc5 Bxh4 33 c6 Kd6 34 Rxh5 Bf2 35 g4 Kxc6 36 Rh2 Bc5 37 Rc2 f6 38 Rh2 Bxc4 39 Rh6 Bd5+ 40 Kf5 Bxf3 41 g5 Kd5 ½–½ Kasparov,G-Kramnik,V/London ENG 2000/TWIC 312 6 c3 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 a4 A waiting move with a point - and also an active one. As long as Black has the option of ..Bg4, White wants to avoid d4. So first, 7 a4. 8 ..Bg4 8 ..Rb8!? is also an option. 9 h3 Bxf3!? 9 ..Bh5 has also been played by Anand in the past - not to mention Shirov and Adams! 10 Qxf3 0–0 11 a5 Rb8 12 d3 Nd7 13 Be3 Kh8 14 Nd2 Ne7 15 Bc2 Bxe3 16 fxe3 c5 17 Bb3 c4?!

During the press conference after the game, Anand thought that on reflection he should have opted for 17 ..Nf6! ] 18 dxc4 Nc5 [18 ..b4 19 c5 Nxc5 20 Bxf7. 19 cxb5 Nxb3 20 Nxb3 Rxb5 21 Qd1 Qc7 22 Ra4 Nc6 23 Nd2 Nxa5 Taking the other pawn may have been a better option - the ending looked easier to defend. 23 ..Rxb2 24 Nc4 Rbb8 (24 ..Rb5 25 Qxd6 Qxd6 26 Nxd6 Rc5 27 c4!) 25 Qxd6 Qxd6 26 Nxd6 f6 and, in the grand scale of things, the extra pawn doesn't look as if it's going to be enough - Black should be able to hold. 24 b4 Nb7 25 Qc2?

Roundly criticized by Kasparov during the post mortem after the game. It looks as though the ex world champ missed his moment to take the Audience Prize with 25 Rxa6! Qxc3 (25 ..Rb6? 26 Rxb6 Qxb6 27 Nc4 Qc6 28 Qd5!) 26 Rxf7 Rg8 27 Qf1! The move missed by Kasparov during the post mortem - but he did manage to find it later! White's simply wins in all lines now. 27 ..Nd8 (27 ..Rxb4 28 Ra8!; 27 ..Qxe3+ 28 Kh1 Rxb4 29 Ra8) 28 Rxg7!! Kxg7 29 Rxd6 Threatening Qf6 mate! 29 ..Qxe3+ 30 Kh1 Qf4 31 Qxb5! 25 ..h6 26 Qd3 Rb6 27 Rfa1 Rc6 28 R1a3 a5 29 Kh2? d5! 30 Qb5 30 exd5? e4+!; 30 Qxd5!? Rd8 31 Qa2 Rxc3 32 Rxc3 Qxc3 33 Nf1 axb4 34 Qxf7 Nc5 35 Ra7 Rg8 30 ..d4! After missing the exploitation of the pin on the b8-h2 diagonal, Kasparov unbelievably falls for the trick again - much to his frustration in the post mortem! 31 bxa5 31 cxd4? exd4+ 32 Kg1 dxe3 33 Rxe3 Rb6 is practically winning for Black. 31 ..dxc3 32 Nb3 Nc5?

It looks good, but unfortunately for Anand he had underestimated Kasparov's resources. Instead, the old adage of "passed pawns must be pushed", could well have given the Indian ace the full point: 32 ..c2!? 33 Nc1 Rc5 34 Qb6 (34 Qb4 Nd6 35 a6 Rb8!, and it's not too easy to see how Kasparov defends this. 33 Rc4 Rb8 34 Qxc6 Qxc6 35 Nxc5 Qb5 36 Rcxc3 Qe2 37 Nd7 Rb2 ½–½

One Russian who didn’t miss out on the Audience Prize for round three was Alexander “Weird Al” Morozevitch. Much to the annoyance of Kasparov, last year he picked up no fewer than four best game awards from the audience. He must have been kicking himself that there were only four Dutchmen in the tournament as this win against his third in-a-row, allowed him to share the joint lead with Kasparov.

Morozevitch ventured across to the bear pit we loosely call the press room to inform us all that he had “everything under control” in this crazy Slav against Loek Van Wely – an horrific defeat that now consigns three of the Dutch players to equal last.

Van Wely,L (2700) - Morozevich,A (2745) [D16]

1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 a4 c5?! Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Alexander Morozevich! In an attempt to bamboozle his opponent from an early stage and take him out of his extensive opening knowledge, Morozevich digs down deep to unearth a discredited variation of the Slav that was experimented with in the 1940s by Vladimr Alatortsev. A quick scan of my extensive Slav database reveals the real problem Black has with 6 ..c5!?! - White has a 77% score with it! However, ropey variations in the Slav has never deterred "Weird Al" in the past - remember last year's tournament when he hit Gazza with the memorable ..g5? 6 d5! Certainly the best, but e4 is also equally good - particularly if you can turn Smyslov over in 22 moves in a Candidates Tournament when he was at his peak! 6 e4 cxd4 7 Qxd4 Qxd4 8 Nxd4 e6 9 Ndb5 Na6 10 Bxc4 Bc5 11 Bf4 Ke7 12 0–0 Bd7 13 e5 Nh5 14 Be3 Rhc8 15 Be2 g6 16 Ne4 Bxe3 17 fxe3 Rc2 18 Nbd6 Rf8 19 Bxa6 bxa6 20 g4 Ng7 21 Nf6 Bc6 22 Rfc1 1–0 Boleslavsky,I-Smyslov,V/Budapest 1950/Candidates 6 ..Bf5 7 e3 e6 8 Bxc4 exd5 9 Nxd5 Nc6!?

And here it is - the Morozevich tweak. Up to now, 9 ..Be4 was de rigor: 9 ..Be4 10 Nc3 Qxd1+ 11 Kxd1 Bg6 12 Nd5 Nxd5 13 Bxd5 Nc6 14 Bxc6+ bxc6 15 Ne5 Be4 16 f3 f6 17 Nc4 Bd3 18 b3 0–0–0 19 Bd2 Be7 20 Nb2 f5 21 Nxd3 Rxd3 22 Kc2 Rhd8 23 Rad1 Bg5 24 f4 Bf6 25 Ba5 Rxd1 26 Rxd1 Rd5 27 Be1 Kd7 28 Rd3 Ke6 29 Bc3 Rxd3 30 Kxd3 Bxc3 31 Kxc3 Kd5 32 Kd3 h6 33 g3 h5 34 h3 h4 35 gxh4 g6 36 h5 gxh5 37 a5 a6 38 h4 Ke6 39 e4 fxe4+ 40 Kxe4 Kf6 41 f5 Kf7 1–0 Vulfson-Alatortsev,V/Kuibyshev 1942 10 Qb3 Qd7 11 Nxf6+ gxf6 12 Bd2 Rg8 13 Bc3 13 0–0–0!? 13 ..0–0–0! 14 Bxf7?

Heavily criticized by Morozevitch during the press conference after the game. However, the position isn't exactly without its dangers for White: 14 Bxf6 Be7 15 Bxe7 Qxe7 , leaves the White king in a dilemma: Where exactly to head for safety? 16 0–0 (16 Rd1 Rxd1+ 17 Qxd1 Rxg2!) 16 ..Bh3 17 g3 Qe4!; 14 g3! is the only (and best) move, according to Weird Al, who, then started to get excited by the possibility of a messy piece sacrifice with: 14 ..Bg4 15 Be2 Qf5 16 Nh4 Qe4 17 f3 Qxe3 18 fxg4 Ne5 19 Rd1 Re8 20 Qd5 Nxg4. 14 ..Rxg2 15 Nh4 Ne5! 16 Nxf5 16 Nxg2?? Nf3+ 17 Ke2 (17 Kf1 Bd3#!) 17 ..Bd3+ 18 Kd1 Bc4+ 19 Kc2 Qxf7! 20 Qa3 Qg6+ 21 Kc1 Qxg2! 16 ..Nd3+! Much, much more fun than simply taking back the piece with an advantage. 17 Kf1 Rxf2+ 18 Kg1 Kb8! The killer moves are always the quiet ones! Morozevich simply moves his king off the same diagonal as the queen, leaving Van Wely to stare at the precarious state of his own monarch. 19 Qe6 Rxf5! 20 h4 20 Qxd7 Rxd7 21 Be6 Rg7#! 20 ..Bd6 21 Rf1 Rg8+

0–1 21 ..Rg8+ 22 Bxg8 (22 Bg6 Rxg6#) 22 ..Qg7#

Whatever would the Dutch do without Jan Timman? Flying in after winning the Keres Memorial, Jan “The Man” is yet again proving to be the top Dutch player as he moved – albeit with a big dollop of luck – into joint third place with this win over Veselin Topalov.

Timman,J (2629) - Topalov,V (2718) [A43]

1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 c5 3 d5 b5 4 Bg5 Ne4 If memory serves me here (always a bad sign!), the editor of Chess Monthly, Jimmy Adams, once did a nice piece in a British Chess Magazine of the early 1980s, christening this system "The Variation With No Name", after he was inspired by some of those legendary Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns. 5 Bh4 Bb7 A crazy Kasparov-Miles no-holds-barred training match continued with the more standard Trompowski-like continuation of 5 ..Qa5+: 5 ..Qa5+ 6 Nbd2 Bb7 7 a4 Bxd5 8 axb5 Qc7 9 Ra4 Qb7 10 c4 Nxd2 11 cxd5 Nxf1 12 Qd3 d6 13 e4 Nd7 14 Qxf1 h6 15 Qe2 g5 16 Bg3 Bg7 17 e5 0–0 18 h4 Qxd5 19 hxg5 Nxe5 20 Bxe5 dxe5 21 gxh6 Bf6 22 Rh5 Kh8 23 Nxe5 Qb3 24 Ra3 Qb4+ 25 Kf1 Rad8 26 Nc6 Qxb2 27 Qxb2 Bxb2 28 Rxa7 Rc8 29 Rxe7 c4 30 Ke2 c3 31 Kd3 1–0 Kasparov,G-Miles,A/Basel 1986 – if you thought that was crazy, check out in your databases the other five games from this match! 6 e3 Now, after just 6 moves, not only is it "The Variation With No Name", its also the variation with no games according to my Christmas present from Freddie Friedel: MegaBase 2001! However, I suppose it's where Jan loves to be - in virgin territory! 6 Qd3, attacking the knight on e4, is more common. 6 ..g6 7 c3 Qa5 8 Nbd2 Nxd2

I thought Black would have been happier with 8 ..Bxd5!? 9 Nb3 Bxb3 10 axb3 (10 Qxb3 b4 11 cxb4 cxb4 12 Bc4 e6 13 Qd3 d5) 10 ..Qb6 11 Qd5 Qc6 12 Qxc6 dxc6 13 Bd3 Nd6 9 Qxd2 Bg7 10 e4 d6 11 Bd3 Nd7 12 0–0 a6 13 Rfc1! Threatening 14 a4, threatening to win a pawn because if 14 ..b4, 15 cxb4 cxb4 16 Rc4! 13 ..Rc8 14 h3 Qb6 15 Bf1 Nf6! 16 Re1 You can't help feeling that Jan has lost the thread of this game. 16 ..0–0 17 a4 Rfe8 18 a5 Qc7 19 c4 b4 20 e5 dxe5 21 Nxe5 Nh5 22 Ng4 Bd4 23 Rad1 e6! 24 Re4?

24 dxe6 Rxe6 25 Rxe6 fxe6 and Black may have had the better prospects due to the bishop pair, but this is simply bad. 24 ..f5 25 Nh6+ Kg7 26 Rxe6 Rxe6 27 dxe6 Nf4 28 Re1 28 Bg3? Nxh3+! 29 Kh2 (29 gxh3 Qxg3+!) 29 ..f4 30 Kxh3 fxg3 31 Qg5 Rf8! 28 ..Kxh6 29 Bg3 g5 30 h4 Re8 31 e7 Be4 32 hxg5+ Kxg5 33 Kh1 Rxe7 33 ..Be5! 34 f3 Bb7 35 Rxe5 Qxe5 34 f3 Re6 35 Bh2 Rh6 36 fxe4 Kg6??

The press room pundits were screaming for the blatantly obvious 36 ..Rxh2+! - especially as the likes of Fritz and Co were having a multiple orgasm by now: 37 Kxh2 Qd6! 38 Re3 (Stopping ..Qh6 mating. 38 Kg3? Bf2+! 39 Qxf2 Ne2+ 40 Kf3 (40 Kh3 Qh6+ 41 Qh4+ Qxh4#) 40 ..fxe4+ 41 Kxe4 Ng3+ 42 Kf3 (42 Ke3 Qd4+ 43 Kf3 Qf4#) 42 ..Qf4#) 38 ..fxe4 (38 ..Qh6+ 39 Rh3!) 39 Rg3+ (39 Kh1 Qh6+ 40 Rh3 e3!! 41 Qe1 Nxh3 42 Qg3+ Kf5 43 Bd3+ Ke6 (43 ..Kf6? 44 Qd6+ Kg7 45 Qd7+=) 44 Qxh3+ Qxh3+ 45 gxh3 Bxb2!) 39 ..Kf5 40 Kh1 (40 Re3 Nd5+ 41 Rg3 (41 g3 Nxe3) 41 ..Ne3 42 Qf2+ Ke6 43 Kh3 (43 Be2 Nf5!) 43 ..Nf5!) 40 ..Qf6! 41 Rh3 Kg6! 42 Rg3+ Kf7. 37 g3 Nh5 37 ..Nh3 38 exf5+ Kf7 39 Re2! 38 exf5+ 1–0

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.